LAWSON: Well, I think a lot of churches, people are going there to be entertained.
They are going there to make relationships. They are going there out of religiosity.
They are going there not for God, but for what God would provide for them. So,
they are not after the Giver; they are after the gifts. And so, they are there for
all the wrong reasons. That doesn't mean they are seeking God.
They are simply seeking either common grace things or they are seeking the gifts but they
have zero interest in the Giver. And that church may have a good bowling alley, too.
CHARLES: Yeah, I have many pastoral friends and colleagues. I get nervous at just about blanket
criticisms of pastors and the church, but the truth of the matter is that there are too many
churches that are intentionally designing their work to be attractive to the unbeliever, which
means imitating the world, which means forsaking in many instances,
maybe even inadvertently. I think a lot of it happens sincerely with guys wanting to
sincerely reach people, but in leaning over to reach the world the church sometimes falls in.
And there is no distinction about the unique life and mission and nature of the church and
there we just kind of slap Christian on whatever we are doing and there's Christian bowling. And it
is a least common denominator style of ministry, which I think is growing more and more prevalent,
because there is...I'm old enough to see the change in the culture where there was a cultural
respectability about going to church that just...my daddy would say on Sundays, "If
going to church is right, then not going to church must be wrong," and people would "Amen" that.
There is no assumed amen to that. The premise that going to church is right is not assumed.
And I think there are creative ways I think pastors and churches are trying
to reach the world in which the local church is becoming an old Adam improvement society
rather than presenting the gospel so that lost people would become new creations in Christ.
LAWSON: Yeah, can I add one thing to that? 1 Corinthians 1:18: "For the preaching of the cross
is to those who are perishing foolishness." I think that those kind of churches
are not...they are spraying perfume on the cross
and it's no longer foolishness to the unregenerate, unconverted mind. And so,
if our preaching is not foolishness to the unbeliever, then we're not preaching the cross,
which is foolishness to the unbeliever. It's the wisdom of God to those who are called and
the power of God to those who are called. But it is utter...in fact, later down in verse 14
that word "foolish," well it's the same from verse 18, is moros from which we get the English word
"moron," that it ought to make no sense to the unbelieving mind that God would send His only Son
into this world, be born of a virgin, be born under the law, would go to the cross,
would bear the sins of all those who would believe in Him and that He was buried, He was raised from
the dead and He is now ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and the eternal destiny of
every single person who has ever lived depends upon whether or not they know or do not know
this Nazarene carpenter. That ought to be foolishness to an unbeliever. I mean, just
the sheer virgin birth alone would be foolishness. The substitutionary cross would be foolishness.
And so, instead these churches will just have a series of sermons on how to have a happy vacation
rather than, you know, preaching a bloody cross. And so, as Adrian Rogers said years ago,
"The problem with preachers today is nobody wants to kill them anymore."
Yeah, because we just are like the captain of "The Love Boat." You know, "I just want to make sure
everyone's happy in this church." And that's not our calling, that there is an offense to the cross
to the carnal mind. And so, when someone who is carnal comes to church, there should be an offense
because you have to know the bad news before you can receive the good news.